Clinical and echocardiographic predictors of decompensation in acute severe aortic regurgitation due to infective endocarditis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with acute severe aortic regurgitation (AR) due to infective endocarditis can progress rapidly from the hemodynamically stable patient to pulmonary edema and cardiogenic shock. We sought to identify patients at risk of decompensation where emergent surgery should be undertaken. METHODS: We identified 90 patients with acute severe AR from the echocardiography laboratory database. Baseline clinical, hemodynamic (heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP)), and echocardiographic data including mitral filling, premature mitral valve closure (PMVC), and diastolic mitral regurgitation (DMR) were identified. The primary endpoint was subsequent development of pulmonary edema or severe hemodynamic instability. RESULTS: Patients who met the primary endpoint had a higher HR (98.5 bpm vs 80.5 bpm), lower diastolic BP (54 mm Hg vs 61.5 mm Hg), higher mitral E-wave velocity (113 cm/s vs 83 cm/s), higher E/e' ratio (12.4 vs 8), higher proportion of DMR (27.8% vs 7.4%), and PMVC (25% vs 9.3%) than patients who did not meet the endpoint. The proportion of patients with the primary endpoint increased as HR increased ((≤81 bpm) 3/30 (10%), (81-94 bpm) 11/31 (35.5%), (≥94 bpm) 22/29 (75.9%), P < .0001) and as the diastolic BP reduced ((≤54 mm Hg) 19/31 (61.3%), (54-63 mm Hg) 12/31 (38.7%), (≥63 mm Hg) 5/28 (17.9%), P = .003). Independent predictors were a higher HR (OR 1.08 (95% CI 1.04-1.13) P = .0003) and DMR (OR 4.71 (95% CI 1.23-18.09), P = .02). CONCLUSION: Decompensation in acute severe AR is common. Independent predictors of decompensation are increasing HR(≥94 bpm) and the presence of DMR. Those with these adverse markers should be considered for emergent surgery.

Enhanced prognostic value from cardiopulmonary exercise testing in chronic heart failure by non-linear analysis: oxygen uptake efficiency slope.

AIMS: Predicting survival from peak exercise oxygen uptake (peak VO2) in chronic heart failure (CHF) is hindered by its reduction if exercise duration is submaximal. The oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) is a non-linear description of the ventilatory response to exercise, which has the potential to describe abnormalities even early in exercise. We evaluated the physiology of OUES and assessed its potential for prognostic information in patients with CHF. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-three patients with CHF (mean age 59+/-12 years) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing between May 1992 and July 1996. Mean peak VO2 was 16.2+/-6.7 mL/kg/min, VE/VCO2 slope 38+/-12.5, ventilatory anaerobic threshold 10.9+/-3.5 mL/kg/min, and OUES 1.6+/-0.7 L/min. The value for each variable fell across the New York Heart Association classes (P<0.0001 by analysis of variance for each). When only the first 50% of each exercise test was used to calculate the variables, the value obtained for OUES changed the least (peak VO2 25% difference and OUES 1% difference). After a median of 9 years of follow-up, 139 patients (57%) had died. Each of the exercise variables was a significant univariate predictor of prognosis but in a multivariable model, only OUES was identified as the sole significant independent prognostic variable. CONCLUSION: OUES provides an effective, independent measure of pathological exercise physiology. Its numerical value is relatively insensitive to the duration of exercise data from which it is calculated. Its prognostic value seems to be stronger than the best available existing measures of exercise physiology.